Chapter 360

Have a happy and safe Independence Day.

I hoped that I had chosen the right cord and that it was the slow burn type and not mislabeled. It was one hell of a chance but I did not like some of the things Robert was sending me from his intelligence gathering. They had a couple minutes to change their mind but no more.

I had walked fifty feet when all kinds of screaming erupted from behind me. Gus wasn’t saying anything, just staring at the burning cord, but his three accomplices were saying plenty.

The burn was less than 8 feet away when I stomped it out. To be sure, I pulled my combat knife and cut the cord off a couple inches from the burn.

I put my phone on movie capture, “Now; who sent you here? Who paid you to set the convention center on fire?”

“Shut up, don’t say anything!” Gus yelled.

“Marla Snoops,” Dufus replied.

“The head of the Mad Matters Group?” I replied.

“Yeah, her and Julio Barns were there; he was passing out the money,” Dufus replied.

“I told you to shut up!” Gus shouted.

I stopped the recording.

“That white bitch is crazy, I can see it in her eyes; man she could watch you burn just for the fun of it. You may want to go out that way but not me,” Dufus shouted.

Andy and Charlie came back, “Your coffee was getting cold so we refilled it. Do you have everything you need or do you want a few more minutes with them?” Andy asked.

“Call the cops man; please call the cops and keep her away from us. Please misters call the cops?’ the other one begged.

“Put flex cuffs on them, cut the cord off,” I told Charlie.

“Cord, what do you mean cord?” Dufus asked.

Andy handed me one of the removed cords.

“It would not have been good for the medical examiner to find plastic from melted flex cuffs imbedded in your wrists after I had lit you off. This is fast burn cannon cord. It would have burnt off so quickly you would have been able to thrash around in your last 30 seconds, making it look like you accidentally set yourselves on fire,” I said.

I stepped back away from the gas and lit a piece. It burned very fast; 3 seconds to the foot.

“I told you she would burn us you dumb ass; she had it all planned and ready and had an alibi,” Dufus said.

“Make sure you get all the incriminating evidence Charlie.”

I called the county sheriff, “We have four more for you at the Convention Center, out back in the parking lot. They are cuffed to a light pole with their gas cans. Come pick them up,” I said

Fifteen minutes later four squad cars came through the entrance and into the back parking lot, screeching to a stop at the light post. I directed them to Charlie since he had made the initial contact with the group.

Then I asked, “Who is in charge?”

“I am ma-am; Lieutenant Richardson at your service. What can I do for you?”

“I have a video clip you need to watch,” I replied.

I played the clip of the confession then said, “Give me your email and I will send it to you,” as I handed him one of my business cards. A couple seconds later his phone chimed that he recieved my e-mail.

“Lieutenant, I will send you the drone video of them coming through the back fence and across the parking lot as soon as the lawyers approve it,” I said.

“You had drone surveillance on this site?”

“We did last night,” I replied.

It was now 7 AM Saturday morning and we had less than 12 hours to get everything in place for tonight’s debate; the candidates wanted to be on stage at 7.

The TV channels that were going to broadcast live were setting up at three. Both Marley Kendall and Hanna Page’s stations were going to run it live, with Marley’s parent network sending the feed nationwide. There were four national networks along with several independents in the reserved media section.

Several of the networks planned to have reporters outside the Convention Center covering the incoming crowd. I knew for a fact that the protesters had tipped them off that they were going to cause trouble from a report I had just received from Robert.

I had forbidden any live broadcast from the parking lot, in the tent or security area, much to the stations dismay; they all wanted the footage of protesters and how they were handled that would win them the Pulitzer Prize.

Andy and I walked back to the chopper; the turbine was spinning up as I buckled the seat belt for the 30 minute ride back to Morton.

We spent the rest of the morning putting the last of the pieces together and verifying the logistics to get everyone there for the training before people starting showing up.

At 2 PM we were back with everyone in the convention center where the final plans were put together. One of the local school bus operators had a charter service that Marcy contracted to carry all of our people over from the island.

By four we had all the plans finalized.

Everyone who was going to work the scanners was at the scanners getting training from the east coast people. All the operators of the scanners were my administrators and clerks. When the technical training was done all of us were going to go through the scanners for real ‘on the job’ training for the operators.

When the crowds started arriving I was going to stay at the entrance area to look over everyone coming in.

Robert and Burt were going to run the facial scanners from a booth off to the side while still monitoring the communications of the groups. We anticipated that the chatter between the groups would drop off quickly when the event started.

Jake had his 100 employees from the PA site and was outside going through the parking sequence. They too were going through the scanners; that would expose the scanner operators to a variety of life experiences.

I was sure the construction guys would have a whole lot of different items in their pockets and on their belts to put on the trays. I remembered when as a little kid Dad would empty his pockets on the kitchen table before going to bed.

There were always interesting things to look at; small bolts, nuts and always some interesting thing that he would have to explain to Jake what it was or what it did.

Marcy and Jenny set up the podiums for the candidates and then set up the table for the moderators. Marcy, Jenny and Jason were going to be the moderators. They were also checking out the audio and speakers.

All the questions that the attendees wanted to ask the candidates had been printed out on 5 x 8 cards and were stacked on the table. There was a smaller pile of questions that would be directed at the entire group of candidates to answer.

One more thing that we had to allow that I did not like was the concession stand needed to be open. One could simply not have that large a group of people for that long a time and not have at least bottled water.

I objected on the grounds that things could get nasty with things being thrown in all directions, if some of the opposition groups managed to get on any of the mailing lists and had gotten tickets. To get on the mailing list, all one had to do was donate and end up on one of the lists the candidates had given us.

We had cross-referenced the list with known members of the groups and anyone who had been flagged by the Secret Service and came up empty.

The concession stand was going to be run by the Montgomery County Volunteer Fireman’s Association. They were only to offer plastic bottles of water or soda and boiled or grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and French fries.

Another decision driving the concessions was that there was going to be a 10 minute break at the end of each hour to allow the candidates to go to the secure bathrooms and consult with aids.

I did win one victory; the contract Marcy had negotiated gave us exclusive control of the property for security reasons, including all food and drink. It was several weeks after the signing that the management company for the site realized that the concessions were not covered in the contract like they wanted and they wanted the concessions themselves.

They sent Jenny an addition to the contract for us to sign, giving them control of the concession stand; no way was that going to happen. The Fireman’s Association was going to get all proceeds and the agreement with them had already been signed.